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HX64096831 
R1 54.Sa8  B99  The  lirst  scientist 

THE  FIRST  SCIENTIST 
OF  THE 
MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY 


C"^  // 


A  MEMOIR 


OF 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF 


DOCTOR  ANTOINE  FRANCOIS  SAUGRAIN 


BY 


WILLIAM  VINCENT  BYARS 


4^ 


BENJ.   VON  PHUL,   PUBLISHER 
ST.   LOUIS 


R^54Sc^5< 


£S3 


CoUege  of  ^t)?sficians  anb  ^urficong 
Hihvavp 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2010  with  funding  from 

Open  Knowledge  Commons 


http://www.archive.org/details/firstscientistofOObyar 


^--^t^^- 


THE  FIRST  SCIENTIST 
OF  THE 
MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY 


A  MEMOIR 


OF 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF 


DOCTOR  ANTOINE  FRANCOIS  SAUGRAIN 


BY 


WILLIAM  VINCENT  BYARS 


4^ 


BENJ.    VON   PHUL,    PUBLISHER 
ST.    LOUIS 


6^? 


ralLd 


e  par  le 


lotiA  CauA^mciiid  etmx)  lictitcnanj 


c'iicvaiii>w   c'O-  iiocv 


cy 


0  ^^    -      /' 


[Reduced  I-acsimile  of  Doctor  Saugrain's  Passport  of  1790.] 


PRESS   OF 
WOOOWARO    i.    TIERNAN    PRINTING   CO. 
ST.   LOUIS. 


f^  r^-  ^-^< 


THE  FIRST  SCIENTIST  OF  THE 
MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY. 


What  now  would  be  called  "the  scientific  spirit"  came  to  St.  Louis 
and  Upper  Louisiana  with  the  beginning  of  the  Nineteenth  Century, 
when  Doctor  Antoine  Franyois  Saugrain  became  "post-physician"  under 
the  Spanish  Lieutenant-Governor,  Don  Carlos  Dehault  Delassus.  Reap- 
pointed by  President  Jefferson  in  June,  1805,  to  this  position  of  some 
iionor  but  small  profit,  Doctor  Saugrain,  until  his  death  in  1820,  con- 
tinued in  St.  Louis,  what  he  himself  called  his  "work  in  the  dark"  in 
scientific  experiment,  conducted  under  the  great  difficulties  incident 
to  the  practice  of  his  profession  as  a  physician  in  a  pioneer  settlement  in 
the  wilderness. 

In  his  own  generation,  when  science  was  not  specialized  as  it  is 
now,  he  might  have  been  called  "the  first  philosopher  of  the  Mississippi 
X'alley,"  and  there  would  have  been  no  one  to  contest  the  claim.  Don 
Juan  d'UUoa,  who  came  to  New  Orleans  as  Governor  of  Louisiana  in 
1765,  owed  his  appointment  more  to  the  regard  in  which  "philosophy" 
was  beginning  to  be  held  in  Spain  than  to  his  talents  as  an  administrator. 
1  le  was  the  most  noted  philosopher  of  Spain  in  his  generation,  but  the 
revolt  of  the  French  element,  under  Lafreniere,  forced  his  recall  from 
Louisiana  too  quickly  to  allow  his  name  to  become  identified  with  the 
Mississippi  \'alley,  except  as  it  figures  in  a  painful  chapter  of  political 
history.  It  was  only  when  Doctor  Saugrain  removed  his  chemical  appa- 
ratus to  St.  Louis  that  the  country  west  of  the  Mississippi  acquired  a 
resident  representative  of  the  spirit,  already  developed  in  the  Eighteenth 
Century,  which  was  to  revolutionize  the  Nineteenth,  with  promises  of  still 
greater  changes  at  the  beginning  of  the  Twentieth. 

While  the  records  of  his  work,  in  what  was  then  an  isolated  frontier 
village,  are  preserved  onl}-  in  fragments  or  by  tradition,  these,  though 
they  demonstrate  no  immediate  results,  identify  his  spirit  fully  with  that 
which  now  makes  it  possible  to  judge  by  the  most  far-reaching  results 


DR.  ANTOINE  FRANCOIS  SAUGRAIN. 

[From  an  oil  portrait,  painted  from  life.] 


tlu-    inii)iirtaiu-c'   of   clTurts     and     aspiralinns,     iiKiili  f\  i'iil;-     liini     with    the 
atinosplicrc  in  which   h'rankhn  aii«l  Lavoisier  hvcd  and  worked. 

iJcfon.'  it  is  pMssihlc  to  rrah'/i-  llie  (hlTcrcncc  l)ctwccn  the  inti-lU-ctnal 
conchtions  of  the  l''i,L;iiti-(.'nth  ('rntur\  and  those  of  our  own,  it  must  he 
recalled  that  alchemy,  the  mysticism  which  belonged  to  the  maj^ic  and 
the  astrology  of  the  Middle  A|nes.  controlled  the  thought  even  of  the  most 
advanced  "chemical  philosophers,"  milil  in  I'aris,  where  SaUjL;rain  was 
then  a  lio\-  of  nine  years,  Lavoisier  aun(nuice(l  the  discovery,  su])])lement- 
mil;-  that  of  hranklin,  which  resulted  in  the  death  of  alchemy  and  the 
api)earance  of  the  almost  fully-grown  working'  theory  of  modern  chem- 
istry. The  excitement  immediately  produced  was  so  great  that  Lavoisier 
was  hurned  in  effigy  in  [lerlin  by  the  learned  adherents  of  the  theory  of 
the  Middle  Ages  as  it  had  been  modified  in  the  attempt  to  account  for 
merely  accidental  discoveries.  The  excitement  increased  among  men  of 
nitellect  when  it  was  found  that  those  who  accepted  Lavoisier's  results 
accepted  with  them  a  metlKjd  which,  instead  of  leaving  discoveries  to 
chance,  made  it  ])ossible  to  work  towards  them  and  secure  them  intel- 
ligently The  history  of  the  human  intellect  shows  no  greater  revelation 
of  the  meaning  of  i)h}sical  life  and  its  possibilities  than  came  with  the 
announcement  that  oxygen  gas  is  everywhere  present  with  an  always 
Ijresent  tendency  to  combine  with,  to  change,  to  energize  organic  life  and 
at  the  same  time  to  enter  into  all  the  most  important  processes  of  change 
in  inorganic.  The  possibilities  of  this  knowledge,  vaguely  presenting  them- 
selves to  Doctor  Priestley,  and  at  once  seized  on  in  fundamental  principle 
by  Lavoisier,  were  only  slowly  realized,  but  they  had  an  immediate,  sen- 
sational intluence  in  forcing  either  the  sudden  abandonment  of  older 
theories  or  else  a  determined  attempt  to  use  them  to  overpow-er  and  silence 
the  representatives  of  the  future. 

It  was  in  the  intellectual  atmosphere  thus  produced,  with  the  possi- 
bilities of  a  new  science  revealed  and  only  partly  comprehended,  that 
Saugrain,  as  a  sttident  in  Paris,  received  the  impulses  he  illustrated  by  his 
work  in  St.  Louis.  The  enthusiasm  inspired  by  Lavoisier's  discovery  for 
what  was  then  called  "philosophy,"  w^as  so  great,  and  so  soon  to  be  over- 
come, except  in  the  strongest  minds,  by  the  excitement  of  the  French 
revolution,  that  it  is  only  with  dil^culty  we  can  now  enter  into  it  at  all 
or  realize  how^  high  were  the  hopes  inspired  by  it. 

As  is  often  the  case,  the  element  of  mysticism,  seemingly  expelled  by 
larger  knowledge,  increased  as  a  result  of  it. 

The  only  event  of  the  Eighteenth  Century  which  equals  in  importance 
tc  the  present  the  discoveries  of  Lavoisier,  was  the  experiment   which 


enabled  Franklin  to  announce  the  universal  operation  of  electricity  in 
nature.  At  first,  he  was  sneered  at  as  an  ignorant  and  pretentious  pro- 
vincial. His  discoveries  were  contemptuously  ignored  by  the  learned 
societies  of  England,  but  he  found  a  champion  in  France  for  his 
"philosophy"  in  the  "philosopher"  BufTon,  who,  at  a  time  philosophy 
covered  natural  history  as  well  as  chemistry  and  all  other  sciences,  felt 
it  to  be  not  only  a  right  but  a  duty  to  reinforce  the  unknown  American 
with   the   weight   of   his    authority.      In    1752,    when   by   his    celebrated 


THE    NINI    PORTRAIT  OF   FRANKLIN. 

[Photographed  from  the  Original  Terra  Cotta  Medallion  of  1777,  presented  by  Franklin  to 

Doctor  Saugrain,  now  in  possession  of  his  son,  Frederick 

Saugrain,  Esq.,  of  Sedalia,  Mo.| 

experiment  with  the  kite,  Franklin  demonstrated  his  theory,  the  world  of 
mind  in  France  and  Continental  Europe  was  profoundly  stirred,  and,  as 
experiments  made  almost  simultaneously  with  his,  left  no  possibility  of 
challenging  his  assertion  longer,  he  took  rank  at  once  in  l^Vance  as  one  of 
the  greatest  of  all  pliilosophcrs. 


As  (lomnnstratrd  results  from  his  discovery  increased,  the  learned  in 
lui^iand  were  reluctantl)'  coni])elK(l  lo  claim  him  as  a  Uritish  suljject,  and 
in  1767,  Oxford  Universit}-  offered  liim  its  unwilling  honors,  followed  in 
1775  by  the  furtlier  llriiish  recognition  of  the  Copley  gold  metal. 

The  demonstration  made  by  Franklin  in  1752,  eleven  years  before 
the  birth  of  Saugrain.  was  followed  in  1786  to  1794  by  the  experiments 
of  Galvani.  which,  though  in  themselves  strictly  scientific,  gave  new  life 
to  the  mysticism  of  the  Middle  Ages.  lM)r  the  time,  at  least,  the  discovery 
of  Galvani  appeared  to  be  far  greater  tiian  that  made  by  Franklin  or  by 
anyone  else  up  to  that  time.  It  seemed  to  connect  electricity  with  the 
principle  of  life  itself  and  to  promise  thus  to  realize  the  hopes  which  had 
inspired  the  alchemy  of  the  Middle  Ages  in  its  long  search  for  the  elixir 
vita;.  The  convulsions  of  a  lately-killed  frog,  under  Galvani 's  currents, 
at  once  suggested  attempts  to  restore  the  dead  to  life  Ijy  the  use  of  elec- 
tric batteries,  and  the  possibilities  of  "animal  magnetism"  impressed 
themselves  on  the  minds  of  the  partly  educated  as  involving  a  revelation  of 
the  whole  mystery  of  life  and  death. 

In  Paris,  where  everything  that  is  genuine  is  welcomed  with  an 
enthusiasm  only  exceeded  by  that  excited  when  the  imagination  is  allowed 
its  freest  possible  play,  what  is  now  called  science  as  it  was  then  called 
philosophy,  exerted  an  influence  over  the  minds  of  all  educated  people 
so  great  that  for  a  time  even  politics  were  dwarfed.  The  two  genuine 
discoveries  which  had  been  made,  that  of  electricity  and  oxygen  gas,  as 
universal  forces  in  the  economy  of  the  earth,  were  too  great  to  be  appre- 
ciated in  their  possibilities  then,  as  they  still  are,  but  the  hopes  they 
inspired  in  the  minds  of  those  most  nearly  able  to  understand,  were  dis- 
seminated universally,  and  when  the  motto,  "Novus  Ordo  Saeclorum," 
was  engraved  on  the  great  seal  of  the  United  States,  its  inspiration  was 
the  hope  present,  not  only  in  America,  but  throughout  Europe,  that  a  "new 
order  of  the  ages"  had  actually  l^egun  in  which  all  that  was  worst  in  the 
old  would  soon  be  eradicated. 

In  science  and  by  the  reliex  influence  of  science,  in  politics  also,  it 
was  the  world's  age  of  highest  hope  since  the  first  centuries  of  the 
Christian  era. 

Naturally,  in  politics  as  in  "philosophy,"  the  hopes  of  the  unknown 
turned  to  America,  which  directly  or  indirectly  determined  European 
politics  during  the  whole  of  the  Eighteenth  Century.  The  struggle  be- 
tween England  and  the  Latin  countries,  represented  by  France  and 
Spain,  for  possession  of  Xorth  America,  went  on  during  the  first  half  of 
the  centurv,  and  when,  after  the  revolt  of  the  English  colonies,  Franklin 


went  to  Paris  as  the  representative  of  American  hopes,  he  found  them 
not  different  from  the  hopes  of  the  coming  generation  of  France.  At 
a  time  when  to  be  a  philosopher  was  to  be  a  searcher  into  the  reasons  for 
the  existence  of  everything,  including  political  and  religious  S3^stems,  he 
was  welcomed  as  an  ambassador  from  the  future. 

According  to  an  unsubstantiated  tradition,  it  was  directly  from 
Franklin,  that  Saugrain,  then  a  lad  in  his  teens  studying  in  Paris,  received 
the  impulse  which  determined  his  career  and  sent  hitn  on  his  first  expe- 
dition to  America.  As  he  belonged  to  the  circle  in  which  Franklin  moved, 
it  is  easily  credible  that  there  may  have  been  such  a  meeting  between  them, 
but  it  is  also  true  that  the  Saugrain  family  and  its  connection  of  that 
period  were  under  the  same  influences  which  controlled  Franklin,  so  that 
it  is  not  necessary  to  assume  the  direct  meeting  with  Franklin  at  this  time 
to  account  for  the  fact  that  immediately  after  the  conclusion  of  his  studies 
in  Paris,  and  in  pursuance  of  them,  Saugrain  made  his  first  visit  to 
America. 

The  connection  of  the  Saugrains  of  this  period  with  the  intellectual 
life  of  Paris  is  indicated  by  the  .marriage  of  its  female  members,  one 
of  whom,  Theresa  Angelique,  became  the  wife  of  Henry  Didot,  a  member 
of  the  celebrated  house  of  booksellers  and  publishers,  whose  editions 
of  the  classics  represent  the  nearest  modern  approach  to  the  Aldine ;  an- 
other, Marie  Louise,  married  Doctor  Joseph  Ignace  Guillotin,  immortal- 
ized in  undeserved  odium  because  his  experiments  in  attempting  to  find 
a  painless  means  of  death  for  criminals  condemned  for  capital  crimes, 
resulted  in  the  use  of  the  "guillotine."  Still  another  daughter  of  the 
family  became  the  wife  of  Antoine  Charles  Horace  Vernet,  one  of  a 
family  of  famous  painters.  The  Saugrains  themselves  had  been  identified 
for  successive  generations  with  the  intellectual  life  of  France  as  librarians, 
publishers  and  booksellers.  John  Saugrain,  who  removed  from  Lyons  to 
Paris,  was  printer  to  the  king  under  letters  patent  issued  by  Charles  IX, 
dated  June  jo.  1568.  He  was  also  a  royal  bookseller  under  Henry  IV, 
of  Navarre.  He  died  childless,  and  the  family  tradition  in  Paris  was 
maintained  by  his  brother  Abraham  Saugrain  and  his  descendants,  who 
held  much  the  same  relations  to  the  Paris  of  their  day,  occupied  after  them 
bv  their  family  connections,  the  Didots.  Claude  Marin  Saugrain  (bom 
1735;  married  to  Catherine  Guillyn),  is  thus  noticed  in  the  Dictionnairc 
Universcl,  Critique  ct  Bibliograpliiquc,  of  181 1  : 

"Claude  Marin  Saugrain — This  gentleman,  preserver  of  the 
library  of  tlic  Arsenal,  was  attached  to  it  for  nineteen  years  and  never 
ceased  during  all  that  time  to  give  it  all  his  care.    To  him  is  due  the  pres- 


crvation  of  this  superb  library,  the  finest  and  larc^esl  in  France,  next  to 
the  Imperial  Library.  Descended  from  a  must  ancient  and  notable  family 
of    booksellers,    which    supplied    a    l)ooksel!er    to    Henry    IV,    King    of 


THE   SAUGRAIN    MEMORIAL   TABLET. 

[Photographed  from  the  Tablet  in  Paris.] 


Navarre,  Saugrain  was  himself  a  bookseller,  but  retired  from  trade  and 
was  appointed  keeper  of  the  fine  library  of  AI.  de  Papimy,  which  the 
Count  d'Artois  had  just  acquired.     To  enlarge  still   more  this   famous 


collection,  he  procured  the  purchase  in  its  entirety  of  the  second  part  of 
the  famous  library  of  the  Duke  de  la  Valliere.  In  the  first  storms  of  the 
Revolution,  on  the  day  of  the  taking  of  the  Bastile,  the  mob  learned  that 
there  was  in  the  Arsenal  a  library  belonging  to  the  Count  d'Artois. 
Thither  they  went  imimediately  to  destroy  it.  Saugrain,  alone  in  the 
library,  notwithstanding  the  disturbance  which  such  a  tumult  occasioned, 
had  the  presence  of  mind  to  order  the  porter  to  change  livery  and  put  on 
that  of  the  King.  When  after  so  doing,  the  porter  opened  the  door,  the 
people  withdrew,  believing  themselves  mistaken.  It  was  tO'  this  happy 
idea  that  the  preservation  entire  of  this  precious  collection  is  due.  Several 
times  afterwards  during  the  Revolutionary  period,  he  had  the  courage 
to  resist  orders  from  the  government  for  the  dismemberment  of  the 
second  library  of  France  for  the  purpose  of  dividing  it  among  new  estab- 
lishments. This  firmness,  which  in  that  epoch,  frequently  endangered  his 
life,  was  united  in  Saugrain  with  a  sweet  and  amiable  character  which 
attached  to  him  all  who  knew  him.  He  died  in  Paris  in  1806  at  the  age 
of  70,  leaving  a  reputation  for  honor  and  probity  which  has  never  been 
disputed." 

As  the  booksellers  of  the  Eighteenth  Century  were  not  only  pub- 
lishers of  books,  but  often  the  employers  of  the  men  who  wrote  them,  the 
atmosphere  of  the  Saugrain  family,  whether  as  librarians  ot  booksellers, 
was  that  of  the  world  of  books  during  a  period  when  it  was  dominated, 
as  it  had  not  been  before  and  as  it  has  scarcely  been  since,  by  books  of 
"philosophy,"  including  everything  which  is  now  classified  as  scientific. 
Before  the  discoveries  of  Lavoisier,  however,  the  only  interest  equalling 
that  in  political  philosophy  and  in  the  researches  stimulated  by  Franklin, 
was  in  natural  history  as  it  had  been  stimulated  by  Buffon  and  his 
school.  While  it  was  at  its  height,  it  was  natural  that  its  interest  in 
America,  as  the  largest  field  for  possible  new  discoveries,  should  also  be 
greatest.  While  Saugrain  was  still  in  Paris,  the  Spanish  Governor  at 
New  Orleans  forwarded  to  St.  Louis  a  letter  making  an  earnest  request 
for  specimens  of  the  American  "mandrake"  for  one  of  the  cabinets  of 
natural  history  it  had  become  the  fashion  of  Europe  to  collect  at  that  time. 
The  special  value  set  on  the  "mandrake"  during  the  Middle  AgejS,  when 
science  was  confused  with  magic,  seemed  to  have  survived  in  the  botany 
of  the  period  as  part  of  the  tendency  to  mysticism  which  showed  itself 
in  spite  of  the  work  of  the  "practical  philosophers,"  represented  by 
Franklin  and  1)y  the  makers  of  the  French  Encyclopedia. 

During  the  reign  of  Charles  III  of  Spain,  the  scientific  spirit  of  in- 
vestigation represented  in  such  men  as  the  Count  d'Aranda  and  the  Count 

10 


(I'riloa.  who  were  in  close  touch  with  tlic  ])hi!oso])hcrs  of  France,  was 
^tronj^'cr  than  it  shows  itself  to  he  in  tiic  Spain  of  the  ])rcscnt.  It  was 
under  Si)anish  auspices  that  Doctor  Saus^rain  made  his  first  visit  to 
America.  We  know  of  it  only  l)y  scant  details  a])])earinL^-  in  notices  of 
the  expedition  to  the  Ohio  which  f(jllowed  it.  In  his  twenty-first  year, 
he  went  to  Si)anish  America  to  "make  an  investigation  of  minerals."  T'our 
years  later,  in  17H7,  when  he  reapjjears  in  Paris,  it  is  in  ccjnnection  with 
the  organization  of  an  expedition  by  the  botanist  I'ique  to  visit  the  Ohio 
River  territory  and  study  its  natural  history.  The  date  of  his  arrival 
in  the  L'nited  States  is  fixed  ap])r()ximately  b)'  the  fact  that  he  brought  a 
letter  of  introduction  to  Franklin  from  M.  de  X'eillard  of  Paris,  which 
Franklin  acknowledges  February  17,  1788. 

From  the  journal  of  this  expedition  kept  by  Doctor  Saugrain  himself, 
it  is  showai  to  have  been  filled  with  danger  as  well  as  with  the  difiiculties 
of  navigating  a  stream  like  the  Ohio  in  open  boats. 

"Pique  and  Raguet*  (French)  ;  Pierce  (American),  and  myself," 
he  writes,  "set  out  from  Pittsburgh,  March  19  (1788),  stopping  at 
Wheeling,  at  2\luskingnm,  and  at  Limestone,  a  place  where  a  fine  town 
should  be  built.  In  short,  we  continued  our  journey  without  accident 
until  the  24th,  always  admiring  both  banks  of  the  Ohio,  which  in  places 
are  magnificent.  On  the  24th,  however,  when  we  were  opposite  the  Big 
Miami,  the  wind  having  thrown  us  a  little  towards  the  Pennsylvania  side 
of  the  river,  M.  Pique,  as  we  v/ere  preparing  to  get  rather  more  out  of  the 
current,  called  my  attention  to  a  flatboat  which  was  upon  the  same  bank. 
Alas,  he  was  far  from  thinking  that  this  boat  would  cause  his  death.  As 
we  were  getting  away  from  the  shore  to  gain  the  stream,  w'e  heard  our- 
selves called  by  Indians,  who,  at  the  same  time,  fired  upon  us.  At  the  first 
.shot,  they  killed  my  mare,  and  in  her  death-struggles  the  poor  creature 
pushed  against  the  horse  of  AL  P^ique  which  gave  me  a  kick  in  the  abdo- 
men. It  threw  me  flat,  and  with  another,  the  animal  would  certainly 
have  killed  me  had  it  struck  me  fairly.  It  only  grazed  m;e,  however,  and 
as  I  had  fallen  prone,  the  Indians  thought  they  had  certainly  killed  me. 
I  suppose  that  they  had  fired  nearly  twenty  shots  from  the  bank.  Except 
M.  Pique,  who,  as  I  thought,  had  been  only  grazed,  since  he  did  not  com- 
plain of  the  effects  of  the  wound,  none  of  us  were  struck.  To  get  beyond 
the  range  of  the  bullets,  all  four  of  us  took  to  the  oars.  The  Indians  then 
boarded  the  fiatl)oat  in  front  of  which  they  had  arranged  planking  pierced 
with  loop  holes  through  which  they  could  fire  without  exposing  them- 
selves.    I  left  mv  oar  to  see  if  the  sfuns  were  in  order.     Of  the  three  we 


*  These  names  appear  also  as  "Piquet"  and  "  Raquet." 

11 


liad.  I  found  two  loaded.  One  of  them  was  mine,  and  the  other,  the 
carbine,  which  belonged  to  M.  Rag'uet.  I  hastened  to  load  the  third  as 
well  as  to  look  after  the  priming  of  the  pistols.  During  this  time,  the 
Indians  advanced  upon  us  and  as  they  did  not  fire,  it  was  proposed,  I  do 
not  know  by  whom,  that  we  should  raise  a  handkerchief  as  a  sign  of 
peace,  judging  it  better  to  be  prisoners  among  the  Indians  than  to  be 
killed.  They  approached  us  more  and  more  nearly,  making  similar  signs 
of  peace,  but  when  they  reached  us  and  one  of  them  passed  over  to  our 
boat,  I  saw  that  the  unfortunate  wretch  had  a  knife  in  his  hand,  drawn, 
1  argued  as  I  think  with  reason,  with  no  good  intentions.  I  fired  on  him 
at  once  with  my  pistol,  sending  its  two  balls  into  his  body.  Then  M. 
Raguet  fired  upon  them  in  turn  with  his  carbine  and  I  alsO'  fired  again. 
Raguet  fired  three  or  four  shots,  but  unfortunately,  in  his  haste  at  the 
beginning,  he  had  put  in  the  ball  before  the  powder.  This  delayed  his 
subsequent  firing.  When  he  had  reloaded  and  wished  to  fire,  finding 
that  he  had  his  view  obstructed,  he  put  his  arm  outside  the  protection  of 
the  boat  in  aiming  and  had  it  at  once  broken  by  a  shot.  I  also,  in  putting 
my  hand  outside  to  hold  my  gun  in  taking  aim,  had  a  finger  of  my  left 
hand  broken  in  the  same  way.  At  the  first  shots  fired  by  the  Indians  from 
their  boat,  our  American  companion  sprang  overboard  and  swam  to  land. 
This  was  greatly  to  our  disadvantage,  for  the  Indians  who  otherwise 
might  have  left  us,  increased  their  firing  as  a  result  of  it.  I  think  I  fired 
once  more  after  my  finger  was  broken.  M.  Raguet  was  disabled  by  his 
broken  arm.  As  for  M.  Pique,  he  was  unwilling  to  fire.  Thinking,  I  sup- 
pose, that  the  Indians  would  do  him  no  harm  if  they  took  him  prisoner, 
instead  of  aiding  us  in  our  defence,  he  followed  the  example  of  Pierce. 
As  only  M.  Raguet  and  myself  were  left,  both  of  us  threw  ourselves  into 
the  water.  As  he  had  his  arm  broken  and  could  not  swim,  I  believe  that 
he  was  drowned.  He  preferred  that  death,  he  told  me,  to  being  scalped 
by  the  Indians.  I  had  not  yet  reached  the  bank  when  I  saw  M.  Pique  and 
two  Indians  awaiting  me.  The  moment  I  touched  the  land,  the  Indians 
seized  me  and  bound  my  hands  with  the  thongs  they  used  in  supporting 
their  blankets.  They  had  no  sooner  made  an  end  of  tying  me  than  I  saw 
one  of  the  two  who  had  held  me  approach  M.  Pique,  throw  him  to  the 
ground  and  after  opening  his  coat  and  shirt,  stab  him  four  times,  scalping 
liim  immediately  afterwards.  After  this,  he  put  the  scalp  away  in  a  pocket 
book  M.  Pique  had  in  his  pocket.  I  leave  you  to  imagine,  my  friends, 
what  this  spectacle  was  to  me !  As  you  may  well  suppose,  I  expected 
the  same  fate  for  myself;  liut  instead  of  killing  me,  they  made  me  run  to 
overtake  our  boat,  which,  though  headed  for  the  shore,  had  drifted  nearly 

12 


a  (|uartcr  of  a  mile  from  the  place  at  which  we  left  it.  When  we  came 
ujjpositc  the  boat,  one  of  the  two  attem])ted  to  take  me  by  the  hair  to  drag 
me,  as  the  boat  cimld  not  lie  brous^iu  into  ihr  shore  because  of  the  trees 
(in  tlie  overflovv,  probably).  .\s  for  me,  a  cruel  fear  seized  me.  Seeing 
that  he  had  not  killed  uk-  and  wished  to  cross  the  Ohio  thus,  1  believed 
that  he  wished  to  burn  nie  un  the  other  side.  1  made  a  violent  effort, 
broke  the  thon^'  which  bnund  nie,  and  throwing  myself  into  the  water, 
swam  with  such  force  that  the  Indian  did  not  venture  to  follow  me.  lie 
did  well,  for  it  was  ni\-  intention,  if  the}'  did  so,  to  seize  one  of  them  and 
drown  with  him.  Those  of  the  party  who  had  thrown  themselves  from 
their  boat,  swimming  in  order  to  capture  us  on  shore,  now  got  into  our 
boat  and  began  to  cross  the  Ohio.  As  for  me,  I  held  to  a  tree  near  the 
bank,  with  my  arms  about  it.  The  Indians  fired  from  the  boat  and 
wounded  me  in  the  neck.  When  1  saw  that  their  boat  had  reached  the 
middle  of  the  river,  I  regained  the  shore.  When  I  went  to  see  if  AI.  Pique 
had  expired,  I  found  Air.  Pierce,  who  had  concealed  himself  in  a  ravine. 
Together  we  went  to  Al.  Pique,  finding  him  dead." 

This  tragedy  defeated  the  object  of  the  expedition.  Wounded  as  he 
was  and  without  food,  Doctor  Saugrain  made  his  way  down  the  river, 
saving  himself  from  further  attack  from  Indians  by  keeping  to  the  woods 
with  his  companion  until  they  were  rescued  by  a  party  of  boatmen,  who 
took  them  to  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio,  the  present  City  of  Louisville,  which 
they  reached  on  Alarch  29th.  After  his  wounds  had  healed,  he  returned 
to  Pittsburgh  on  a  flatboat,  and  reaching  Philadelphia,  he  records,  under 
date  of  July  20,  1788,  as  the  last  entry  in  his  journal,  these  particulars  of 
his  reception  by  Franklin,  wdio  was  then  82  years  of  age: 

"At  last  1  am  in  Philadelphia,  and  the  first  thing  I  did  was  to  repair 
to  Doctor  Franklin's.  I  found  him  ill.  He  had  not  left  his  bed  for 
twenty-three  days.  He  arose  to  receive  me,  however.  He  shows  me 
much  attention  and  has  greatly  commiserated  me.  He  has  oft"ered  me  all 
possible  help.  F^inding  himself  much  better,  he  has  invited  me  to  dine 
to-morrow  at  his  house." 

The  Xini  medallion  portrait  of  Franklin,  which  he  presented  to  Doctor 
Saugrain,  is  still  in  the  possession  of  the  family,  valued  as  a  souvenir  of 
an  association  with  the  veteran  philosopher  to  which  the  younger  man 
looked  back  as  one  of  the  sources  of  his  inspiration  in  his  own  subsequent 
attempts  to  extend  in  the  Alississippi  \'alley  the  spirit  of  scientific  re- 
search which  Franklin,  at  a  time  when  his  own  country  was  not  prepared 
for  it,  had  so  greatly  quickened  in  Europe. 

13 


It  was  after  returning  to  Paris  from  Philadelphia,  that  Doctor  Sau- 
grain  left  France  finally  for  America  as  one  of  the  founders  of  Gallipolis, 
Ohio,  a  French  elysium  in  the  wilderness,  celebrated  in  early  American 
history  because  of  the  disappointments  and  disillusionment  of  its  founders, 
drawm  there  from  France  by  the  brilliant  prospectuses  of  the  speculative 
Americans  who  had  organized  the  Ohio  and  the  Scioto  land  companies 
tor  the  purpose  of  selling  Western  lands  to  Frenchmen  whom  the  Revolu- 
tionar}^  troubles  of  Paris  made  more  disposed  tO'  emigrate.  Not  a  few  of 
those  thus  attracted  belonged  to  the  upper  classes,  and  most  of  the  settlers 
were  not  only  deceived  by  the  promises  of  the  speculators,  but  were  in  any 
event  unfitted  for  the  life  of  a  new  country.  It  is  not  probable,  however, 
that  after  his  previous  experience  on  the  Ohio,  Doctor  Saugrain  was  thus 
deceived.  His  passport,  which  is  still  preserved,  s'liows  that  on  the  27th 
of  April,  1790,  he  received  permission,  in  the  King's  name,  to  leave  France 
for  America,  accompanied  by  his  servant.  When  he  reached  Gallipolis 
with  the  other  colonists  he  found  that  it  was  not  only  a  wilderness,  but 
that  the  wilderness  was  filled  with  Indians,  at  that  time  in  a  state  of  active 
hostility  to  settlers.  An  incident  of  his  prior  visit,  however,  had  been  an 
intention  to  investigate  the  country  along  the  Ohio  as  a  suitable  place  for 
future  French  settlements,  and  he  had  then  learned  the  possible  attitude 
of  the  Indians  towards  intending  colonists.  It  is  probable  that,  having 
this  full  knowledge  of  conditions,  he  had  at  this  time  made  up  his  mind, 
notwithstanding  to  remain  in  America.  He  did  remain  in  any  event,  shar- 
ing the  hardships  of  the  colonists  at  Gallipolis  and  becoming  noted,  not 
only  among  them,  but  throughout  the  American  settlements  of  Kentucky 
and  Ohio,  for  his  scientific  knowledge. 

In  a  sketch  of  his  life,  written  by  an  acquaintance  and  published  in 
the  Cincinnati  Saturday  Evening  Chronicle  of  July  14,  1827,  seven  years 
after  his  death,  appears  this  reference  to  his  activities  in  Gallipolis : 
"Dr.  Saugrain  acquired  a  great  reputation  among  the  inhabitants  of 
Kenawha  by  his  success  in  inoculation  for  the  small-pox,  and  many 
flocked  to  Gallipolis  to  be  cured.  He  had,  besides,  many  other  resources. 
He  had  brought  with  him  a  quantity  of  phosphorus,  glass  tubes  and  quick- 
silver. With  the  first,  he  made  phosphoric  lights,  which  he  sold  to  the 
inmters.  With  the  other  articles,  he  made  aerometers  and  barometers. 
He  blew  his  glass  in  the  winter ;  a  friend  graduated  the  instruments.  All 
these  objects  were  disposed  of  by  wholesale  for  Kentucky  and  elsewhere 
or  at  retail  to  the  traders  and  others  who  came  from  different  parts  to 
visit  the  colony.     Saugrain  married  at  Gallipolis  a  very  young  and  ami- 

14 


able  nieinhcT  f>f  a  family  which  hail  cdik-  with  him.     lie  always  shared 
his  means  with  the  rest." 

This  \f)un!^  lady  was  Miss  Rosalie  (ienevieve  Michaul.  The  date  of 
the  marrias:e  has  heeii  t^iven  as  "February  17,  1763,"  a  mistake  similar 
t(j  that  by  which,  in  r>rackcnridf];-e's  account  of  his  visit  to  the  family 
at  (lallipolis,  the  Doctor's  height  is  made  to  appear  "4  feet,  6  inches," 
instead  of  five  feet  and  six  inches,  as  it  appears  in  his  family  traditions. 

As  it  was  part  of  the  education  planned  for  Brackenridge  by  his 
father  that  he  should  become  a  complete  master  of  French  by  learning  to 
speak  it  in  childhood  as  a  native  tongue,  he  was  sent  as  a  child  to  Gal- 
lipolis  and  St.  Cicnevieve.  At  Gallipolis  he  was  for  some  time  an  inmate 
of  Doctor  Saugrain's  house. 

In  1795,  when  15 racken ridge  made  his  accjuaintance.  Doctor  Saugrain 
had  been  married  recently,  his  family  then  consisting  of  his  w^ife  alone, 
as  their  first  child,  a  daughter  named  "Rosalie  Genevieve"  for  her  mother, 
was  not  born  until  1797,  during  the  suljsequent  residence  of  the  family  at 
Lexington,  Ky.  "'J'he  Doctor  had  a  small  apartment  which  contained  his 
chemical  apparatus,"  writes  Brackenridge  in  his  "Recollections  of  the 
West."  "I  used  to  sit  by  him  as  often  as  I  could,  w^atching  the  curious 
operations  of  his  blow  pipe  and  crucible.  I  loved  the  cheerful  little  man, 
and  he  became  very  fond  of  me  in  turn.  Many  of  my  countrymen  used 
to  come  and  stare  at  his  doings,  which  they  were  half  inclined  to  think 
had  too  near  a  reseml)lance  to  the  black  art." 

It  appears  that  Doctor  Saugrain's  residence  at  Gallipolis  ended  soon 
after  the  visit  of  Brackenridge.  He  went  to  Kentucky  with  his  family 
under  circumstances  thus  detailed  in  the  Cincinnati  memoir  of  1827:  "As 
for  Doctor  Saugrain,  he  did  not  remain  long  in  Gallipolis.  A  society  in 
Kentucky,  owning  iron  works,  sent  for  him  to  enlighten  them  in  making 
good  bar  iron  which  they  could  not  produce.  They  flattered  him  and  he 
was  easily  persuaded  to  come  and  iniipart  some  of  his  knowdedge  to  the 
society.  He  removed  to  Lexington  with  his  family  and  that  of  his  wife. 
On  his  arrival  he  was  received  with  that  warmth  of  hospitality  which  has 
always  distinguished  Kentucky.  There  he  remained  about  six  years,, 
after  which,  having  a  friend  in  St.  Louis,  he  was  again  prevailed  upon  to 
move  and  was  created  physician  of  the  garrison  at  that  place,  a  sort  of 
sinecure  in  itself,  but  important  to  him  from  a  professional  point  of 
view." 

The  date  of  his  removal  to  St.  Louis  is  usually  given  as  1798,  and 
it  is  evident  that  the  dates  fixing  the  length  of  his  residence  in  Kentucky 
as  "about  six  years,"  do  not  approximate  exactness  as  the  visit  of  Brack- 

15 


enridge  to  his  family  in  Gallipolis  was  in  1795  and  the  latest  date  fixed  for 
his  removal  to  St.  Louis  as  post  physician  is  1800.  It  is  possible,  how- 
ever, that  he  visited  the  town  before  his  removal  to  it.  After  his  removal 
and  during  the  whole  of  his  subsequent  life,  he  was  noted,  not  only  as  a 
physician,  but  for  the  work  as  a  chemist  and  for  the  experiments  in  elec- 
tricity to  which  he  devoted  himself.  He  had  one  of  the  very  few  electric 
batteries  then  in  the  Mississippi  Valley.  In  addition  to  his  experiments 
with  electricity,  he  seems  to  have  progressed  beyond  his  experiments  with 
phosphorus  lights,  to  re-inforce  the  experiments  of  European  inventors 
who  were  then  attempting  to  perfect  friction  matches.     It  is  said  that  he 


THE  SAUGRAIN  RESIDENCE  IN  ST.  LOUIS. 

[From  a  painting  in  possession  of  the  family.] 


supplied  thermometers  and  other  scientific  apparatus  as  well  as  the  med- 
icines to  the  Lewis  and  Clark  Expedition.  It  is  unfortunate  in  one  sense, 
tliat  contemporaneous  i)ul)lic  interest  in  his  electrical  experiments  was  so 
great,  since  in  the  fragmentary  records  of  the  time,  it  is  always  made 
prominent  at  the  expense  of  his  researches  in  chemistry. 

When  he  devoted  himself  to  chemistry  in  St.  Louis  in  the  first  decade 
of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  it  was  under  circumstances  suggested  by  the 
fact  that  after  building  his  stone  residence  on    the    block    bounded    by 

16 


Secotul  and  lliird,  Alulhtrry  (now  (iratiolj  and  L(jnil)ard  Streets,  lie 
found  it  ad\i>al)lr  to  enclose  it  with  a  strong-  stone  wall  for  security 
against  the  vagrant  Indians  who  then  thronged  the  streets  ol*  the  i)Ost,  be- 
coming somctinies  intoxicated  and  ninnanageahle.  llis  eldest  daughter, 
who  lived  in  St.  Louis  until  late  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  felt  that  she 
had  ne\'er  whollv  recovered  I'roni  the  shock  of  seeing  an  Indian  remove 
the  seal])  of  a  victim,  killed  near  the  family  residence.  Working  in  his 
laboratory  under  such  conditions,  the  St.  Louis  pioneer  chemist  might 
well  say  as  he  said  to  one  of  his  daughters  who  assisted  him  in  his  experi- 
ments :  "W^e  are  working  in  the  dark,  my  child.  I  only  know  enough  to 
know  that  I  know  nothing." 

l^ven  after  the  great  results  which  have  since  followed  the  labor  of 
the  pioneers  in  chemical  experiment,  the  experimental  chemist  of  the 
present  must  still  define  his  actual  knowledge  thus. 

In  spite  t>f  his  devotion  to  science.  Doctor  Saugrain's  work  as  a  phy- 
sician provided  for  a  family  of  six  children  to  whom  and  his  widow,  who 
survived  many  years  after  his  death  in  1820,  he  left  a  conisderable  landed 
estate,  which,  though  it  increased  greatly  in  value  with  the  growth  of  the 
town,  remained  always  far  less  valuable  than  the  memory  of  his  un remu- 
nerated labors  as  the  pioneer  in  the  experimental  science  of  the  Mississippi 
\  alley.  His  descendants,  wdio  still  reside  in  the  city,  are  through  the 
marriages  of  his  daughters,  Rosalie  Genevieve,  on  June  10,  1816,  to  the 
late  Henry  Von  Phul ;  Eliza,  married  June  10,  1817,  to  Captain  James 
Kennerly  of  the  United  States  Army ;  Henrietta  Theresa,  married  June 
10,  1827,  to  Major  Thomas  Noel  of  the  L^nited  States  Army,  and 
Eugenia,  married  August  21,  1834,  to  John  Reel.  Of  his  two  sons,  Fred- 
erick and  Alphonse,  the  former  born  in  St.  Louis  in  1806,  only  three  years 
after  the  American  purchase  of  Louisiana  territory,  outlived  the  century 
and  was  still  living  in  1903  at  the  hundredth  anniversary  of  "the  Pur- 
chase." 

While  the  West,  as  Doctor  Saugrain  worked  in  it,  had  no  learned 
societies  to  appreciate,  understand  and  record  the  results  of  such  experi- 
ments as  his,  merged  as  they  have  been  since  in  the  lasting  results  of  other 
experimenters  working  under  more  favorable  conditions,  the  spirit  in 
which  he  worked  has  so  recorded  itself  that  his  life  makes  more  intelligible 
the  history  of  his  own  generation  and  of  those  which  have  followed  it.  He 
brought  the  lig-ht  of  the  Eighteenth  Century  to  the  Mississippi  \'alley  and 
it  has  grown  steadily  in  radiance  until  the  Twentieth.  "Stat  nominis 
umbra  !"  But  the  impulses  which  animated  him  did  not  fail  him,  nor  have 
they  failed  after  him. 

17 


APPENDIX. 

The  following,  dated  from  64  Rue  des  Martyrs,  Paris,  June  10,  1902,  was  re- 
ceived in  response  to  a  letter  addressed  to  the  United  States  Consul-General  at 
Paris,  making  inquiries  concerning  the  Saugrain  family  in  France  : 

Being  an  author  and  a  bibliophile,  the  U.  S.  Consul-General  often  refers  literary 
questions  to  me,  and  has  shown  me  your  note  of  27th  May.  I  find  in  the  catalogue 
of  the  National  Library,  and  by  reference  to  bibliographical  works,  that  there  are 
eight  books  by  writers  of  the  name  of  Saugrain,  viz.,  by  Cl.  Marin  Saugrain  : 

(i)  Nouveau  denombrement  du  royaume  par  generalites,  elections,  paroisses,  etc. 
Paris.     Saugrain  I'aine,  1720.     2  vols,  in  one,  quarto.     Also  edition  in  1755. 

(2)  Dictionnaire  universel  de  la  France,  ancienne  et  moderne.     3  vols,  folio,  1726. 

(3)  Code  de  la  librairie  et  imprimerie  de  Paris,  etc.,  etc.     Paris,  1744.     i2mo. 

(4)  Code  des  Chasses.     Paris,  1713,  1720,  1734,  1753,  1765.     2  vols.,  i2mo. 

(5)  Les  Curiosites  de  Paris,  de  Versailles,  de  Marly,  Vincennes,  St.  Cloud.  Paris, 
Saugrain,  1716.  i2mo.  Nouvelle  edition,  augmentee  (par  Pigniol  de  la  Force 
et   Saugram).      Paris,   1723.     2  vols.,   i2mo. 

(6)  Nouveau  voyage  de  France,  geographique,  historique,  et  curieux.  Paris,  M. 
L.  R.     Paris,  Saugrain,  1718,   1730.     i2mo. 

(7)  GuiLLATjME  Saugrain.  La  Marechaussee  de  France  ou  Recueil  des  ordon- 
nances,  etc.  Paris,  G.  Saugrain,  1697.  Suite  de  la  Marechaussee  de  France. 
Paris,  P\'c.  Saugrain,  1717.    Lc  tout  en  2  vols.,  4/0. 

(8)  Genealogie  de  la  famille  des  Saugrain,  librairies,  depuis  1518,  jusqu'a  present, 
mise  en  ordre,  imprimee  et  presentee  par  Joseph  Saugrain,  le  ler  Janvier,  1736. 

This  last,  I  judge  from  the  newspaper  article,  you  possess.  The  copy  in  the 
Paris  National  Library  is  marked  "Avec  continuation  m.  s.  et  quelques  additions 
de  la  main  de  M.  Charles  Magnin."  I  consulted  it  and  found  the  names  of  about 
40  members  of  the  family  added  in  writing.  By  the  way,  the  name  is  not 
extinct  in  France,  unless  "M.  Saugrain,  avocat  Cour  d'Appel,  15  Rue  de 
Tournon,"  has  died  within  the  last  year  or  two  without  children.     *     *     * 

Yours  very  truly, 

ROBERT  B.  DOUGLAS. 
To  Benj.  Von  Phul,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 


18 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 

This  book  is  due  on  the  date  indicated  below,  or  at  the 
expiration  of  a  definite  period  after  the  date  of  borrowing,  as 
provided  by  the  rules  of  the  Library  or  by  special  arrange- 
ment with  the  Librarian  in  charge. 

DATE  BORROWED 

DATE  DUE 

DATE  BORROWED 

DATE  DUE 

C28(H4i)m100 

B99 


